The Untrustworthy Person

The short story "The Land Lady" written by Roald Dahl, talks about an elegant, business man named Billy, this man is visiting the city of Bath and he has no place to stay, once he gets of the train station he asks for advice on where to stay, they recommend him the Bell and Dragon. He has been walking for hours and hours and he hasn't find the bell and dragon, so he settles in a B and B, the women seems kind at first but then things start to get a little weird, Billy find out that she preserves all of her pets, Billy walks to read the guest book and he only found 2 more names that were registered 3 years ago. This names sounded familiar for Billy, he remembered that something happened to both of them, and then he remembered that they had disappeared, the land lady served him a poisonous tea.

Roald Dahl uses strong imagery in all of his stories, with this the author helps us imagine how the Lady would be and how will she act.        

He caught a whiff of a peculiar smell that seemed to 

emanate directly from her person. It was not in the least

Unpleasant and it reminded him, well he wasn’t quite

 Sure what it reminded him of. Pickled walnuts ?

Here by using the sense of smell of the character is causes the reader to imagine a pleasant smell.   A smell that the old lady will have. All of this shows us that by using imagery (senses) you get the reader’s attention and that shows that you are a better writer. Also to be a good writer you must be able to use characterization when needed:

"Such a very great pleasure when now and again I open the door and see someone standing there who is exactly right, like you”

This shows the reader that the main character Billy is a fine elegant and gentleman that appreciates what he has. So by using characterization you don’t need to directly explain to the reader what you are trying to say but you can do I by using the characters of the story.

So by reading this story I learned that sometimes there are people that you shouldn’t trust. I think this message is understood very clearly just by reading the story, and it’s such a strong message that we should learn because sometimes you might end up in trouble or with the wrong people. So this shows me that no matter what there are people that are not worthy of trusting.